PLAYING HOUSE

Baltic
Baltic Wharf: prime location – no council houses please.

The city’s largest council house building programme for a generation has been scrapped by Green proclamation. 

At a Housing Committee in September, its chair, community arts twat, Barry “Goldwater” Parsons announced that council housing projects at Baltic Wharf and Hengrove Park were cancelled with immediate effect.

Parsons explained that this multi-million major policy decision was taken by council officers after a grubby deal between Parsons and his Tory wanker vice chair, Richard “Bunter” Eddy. 

The cancellation of these two projects wrecks the council’s HRA business plan, which was supplying funding for council housing over the next 30 years. The plan relies on building council homes and borrowing against the income generated to build more homes. No increased income: no homes.

Parsons refused to let his committee take this major decision. Instead, he used a recent judgement from the government’s Regulator of Social Housing regarding the poor condition of council homes to unilaterally scrap the programme.

Parsons claimed that unknown council officers had instructed him that any housing money must be spent on improving existing homes rather than building new ones. Figures or financial information to back officers’ claims was absent.

Is it a coincidence there was zero mention of council housing in the Green’s manifesto in May?

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